Here, There and Everywhere

Souk L'Hdd

View from Cheryl's roof

View from Cheryl's roof

I recently arranged for Rabha to teach a natural dye workshop in Souk L'Hdd, which is just outside of Azrou. There is another volunteer in Souk L'Hdd, Cheryl, whose women were keen to learn and so after a couple weeks of making arrangements off we went.

We arrived to Souk L'Hdd around 11am and were meant to be having lunch and then starting the workshop. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. Sadly, one of the elder and highly respected men of the community passed away that morning and so the women were busy with funeral processions and the works and unable to get together for the workshop that afternoon.

Washing the wool the first day

In order to keep to schedule, Rabha, Cheryl and I went ahead and prepared the wool for the next day's session, documenting the procedure with photos along the way. The following day, we began the workshop at 9am with a recap of the previous day's activities via slideshow.

Cheryl introducing Rabha

Natural Dye Sources: Pomegranate Skins, Madder Root, Henna 3 Different Pots for Dying (each dye source makes three different colors depending on the type of pot)

Rabha teaching

Rabha teaching

Rabha did an excellent job teaching her very first workshop and it was clear that she thoroughly enjoyed her position as teacher. There were about fifteen women in total and all seemed to take genuine interest in the natural dye process. We had tea breaks during both morning and afternoon sessions, which were my favorite part seeing as Cheryl was kind enough to share her care package supplies of fudge brownies and homemade peanut butter cookies, which the ladies also enjoyed!

Coloring the wool

In the afternoon, on the second day, we took the ladies on a small field trip into the surrounding hills to look for natural dye sources. The women showed Cheryl and I some cactus like plants which had edible roots and tasted quite similar to hearts of palm. They also showed us loads of rocks which they cracked open to reveal mineral and fossil traces, which left me wishing I had paid more attention during my college geology classes so that I could have actually identified which minerals we were looking at!

On our field trip

On Sunday, the third and final day of the workshop, we finished up the natural dye process and then took a walk into town to visit the souk (market). Souk L'Hdd translates to 'Market Sunday' and so it is no surprise that Sunday, like Toon Town, is market day. After a brief souk visit and lunch, we returned to the training room to finish up for the day and congratulate the women on their completion.

Souk Taxi Stand :)

Finished Product

The women and dyed wool

Rabha has some extended family in the surrounding hills of Souk L'Hdd and we had planned on staying with them the last evening. Cheryl's family however, were very persuasive and managed to convince Rabha to visit her family for tea in the afternoon and return to them for dinner in the evening. Cheryl has a wonderful host family, whom we ate lunch with everyday except for the final day when we lunched at Cheryl's and did dinner with the host family. We were told dinner was non-negotiable and that we must come that evening to celebrate the success of the workshop.

Near Rabha's Family

And so we went on a short hike into the hills, met with Rabha's family for an hour or so and then headed back into town.                                                      

Looking forward to a tasty dinner, we headed over to Cheryl's host family around half eight. As we walked into the living room, a preview of that evening's dinner was waiting for us. Sitting on the poonj (Moroccan sofa) was Cheryl's host mom, threading heart, lung, kidney, liver and stomach onto skewers. And as if all those delicacies weren't enough, they were all wrapped in a healthy serving of fat.

Knowing that Cheryl doesn't care for the fat, they had prepared two fat-less skewers just for her. I however, was given the whole shabang. I made it through the meal by smothering each bite in bread and washing it down with gulps of sweet green tea. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. The trick is to turn your brain off, but the amount of salt masked any awfulness and I finished every last bite, with zero gagging and maybe even a teensy weensy bit of enjoyment :) Although, I will say of all the organs present, kidney has been and still is my least favorite...I just can't get past the texture.

The following day, Rabha and I set off for Ait Hamza. It had been five months since I saw my original host family and I was most excited about the short visit. As expected, the kids have all grown a few inches and are looking great. It was so nice to spend time with Hafida and even more special that Rabha got to meet her. As always, Hafida outdid herself with a ridiculous amount of baked goods and tea on arrival, then lunch, then tea and snacks again in the late afternoon and then an even more extravagant and delicious dinner. Even Rabha was surprised when we were brought the wash basin in preparation for dinner, she thought for sure that with all the food we had been fed throughout the day, there was no way we would be having dinner!

Hafida, Mimoun and Rizzlane looking at their new photo album :) 

They send a million thanks to you Granddad and Karen!


  

I purposefully brought Rabha with me to Ait Hamza as the women there have a fantastic cooperative which is functionally exporting without the assistance of a Peace Corps volunteer. I told her this was her chance to ask as many questions as possible, as whatever the women there are doing, it's working. The women were reluctant to share any information with her though, but Hafida promised to find out as much as possible and to let her know in May, when we return to Ait Hamza to conduct a natural dye workshop.

Bill, Me and Joe outside the new weaving school

After a most pleasant visit with the host family, we left the next morning for Boumia. Bill the volunteer in Midelt has been working with his counterpart on setting up a weaving school for the at-risk women in Boumia. Boumia has the highest population of sex-workers in all of Morocco and Hayat, Bill's counterpart is determined to give those women a chance at a better life.

The grand-opening of the school took place in the afternoon and there were six volunteers present to show our support. Rabha accompanied me and I was happy that she got the chance to see the result of all the hard work her fellow Moroccan, Hayat had put into the project. It is truly an amazing school and so pleasing to know that Hayat took the initiative and made it happen. To read more about the project check out Bill's blog entry on the event, there are even a couple pictures of yours truly.

That's all for now...

Much love,

Miriam x